Computing: Boosting signal gets WiFi humming

COMPUTINGBoosting the signal gets wireless network humming

Published 6:30 am, Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Just because the computers in your new wireless home network can see and talk to each other doesn't mean they'll always play well together.

While WiFi is wonderfully convenient, it can be maddeningly finicky. Getting it to work at first is relatively simple; keeping it working can be a pain in the neck.

As I've written in this series of columns on my adventures in moving my existing home network from a two-story house in the burbs to a three-story, Montrose-area townhouse, I opted for WiFi over other network designs because of speed and freedom from cabling (see www.chron.com/network1).

Nearly all the computers in my home were outfitted with wireless adapters, and I hardened them against intruders by encrypting the signal between machines (see www.chron.com/network2).

As indicated in the first installment, I was concerned about getting the wireless signal from the third-floor home office down to the first floor. Testing with a router and a notebook computer in the empty townhouse before we moved in, the signal looked good initially.

But once I got our furniture in and got the computers set up and working, I learned something I didn't know about WiFi: Almost anything solid is a barrier that can diminish a signal. An empty house? Not a problem. A house full of furniture, appliances, modern electronics and people? That's a problem. The signal was so weak that using a laptop on the first floor was an exercise in frustration.

Even the connections for my wife's computer on the third floor, within line of sight of the wireless router, and a desktop on the floor immediately below the home office, were tenuous. Upgrading to the latest drivers for the D-Link adapters I was using helped a little, but not enough.

This was odd, because I'd used the same D-Link router at the previous house, and it provided excellent range. I was able to walk halfway down the block and still maintain a connection.

Time to troubleshoot.

Budget-priced attempt

I started by trying an inexpensive way of boosting the signal, buying an allegedly better antenna on impulse during a visit to MicroCenter. The
Hawking Technologies High-Gain Antenna
only cost me $21, but that was about all it was worth — I noticed no improvement in my WiFi network's signal.

I tried a range extender, the DWL-G800AP from D-Link ($85). This takes the signal from the router and repeats it beyond the normal range.

However, an extender must have a solid signal to repeat, and that wasn't always the case. It would lose its connection to the router from time to time, causing everything else to drop off the network. In addition, its use required disabling a security feature in the router — cloaking my network's name or SSID — and I didn't want to do that.

Doing research, I found 2.4 GHz channel cordless phones can be even more of a problem for 802.11g and b networks than I realized. Even when the phone is not in use, the handset periodically synchronizes with the base station. When the phone is being used, it can blast across frequencies used by WiFi, knocking devices off the network.

Because my new home is a townhouse, I have a common wall with a neighbor. I may not have any 2.4 GHz phones in my house (they're either 900 MHz or 5.8 GHz), but the folks next door apparently do, because the signal apparently bleeds over. I couldn't very well go knocking on their door and ask them to change phone types, so I had to figure something else out.

Newer standard

I tried switching to different channels on my 802.11g network. As I wrote last week, this flavor of WiFi has 11 channels, some of which overlap. By changing to channel 1, I discovered my wife's PC and the machine on the second floor quit losing connections. But it still didn't fix the range problem on the first floor.

There are several versions of the 802.11x protocol used for wireless computer networking. While I was using 802.11g, there's also the older and slow b; a, which is primarily used by corporations, has better range and operates on a different frequency; and the soon-to-be-approved n, which promises to fix a lot of WiFi's problems.

While 802.11n isn't yet available, one of the technologies that will go into it is. MIMO, or multiple in, multiple out, can dramatically extend the range and capabilities of wireless networking. It works by combining multiple 802.11g signals, providing more reach and bandwidth, making it better for streaming video and music over a wireless network.

Most major WiFi hardware makers — including D-Link, Belkin and Linksys — are coming out or already offer MIMO-based products. I decided to test Linksys' wares, which markets MIMO under the name SRX.

Picking a winner

I used a Linksys WRT54GX router ($200) with the company's WPC54G PC-card adapter ($80) for notebook computers. The router, with three adjustable antennas, has a decidedly sci-fi look — true geeks will appreciate it as much for its freaky appearance as its networking muscle.

While the Linksys lineup was quite pricey, it did the trick. The connection on the first floor was now rock-solid and fast. And even though Linksys doesn't yet offer MIMO-based PCI slot or USB adapters, standard 802.11g adapters also performed better talking to this router.

I was also curious to see if using 802.11a would fix the problem. While it's not compatible with 802.11b and g, several manufacturers offer products that are dual-band, sending both a and g signals.

I tried out Netgear's line of a/g products, including a WGU624 router ($105), a WG511U PC-card ($60) and a WG111U USB 2.0 adapter ($70). Focusing the computers on my network at the 802.11a signal, the results were as solid as with the Linksys, and no interference at all.

While my trusty D-Link router had worked well in the simpler environs of my suburban home, the more complex setup and the proximity of my equally unwired neighbors required stronger medicine.

I'm now able to connect from any room in the house, and the connection is reliable. I can now do what I set out to do — sit on the patio outside my new home, sipping coffee and exploring cyberspace.